Stealth Cam MC-2GV

I ran across an old Stealth Cam MC-2GV camera tonight.  It had made its way into a box that holds the hunting and fishing gear that I seldom use.  This box holds many things that I will probably never use again, but I just can't seem to part with.  That 35MM Stealth Cam MC-2GV was my first game camera.  I thought back to the love/hate relationship I had with that camera, and it made me realize that I really don't miss film one bit.

My first game camera.  I do remember how excited I was to get that camera.  I was hunting a leased piece of property a little over an hour away.  It was pre-season, and I drove down with a buddy to hang it that day  I remember struggling with the film to get it loaded.  It just didn't want to catch and feed.  I chalked that up to being a newbie, and worked with it until I was confident I had it set and ready to go.  After a 10 minute hike to a ridge I'd been eager to bow hunt, I dumped a 50 lb bag of corn and strapped the camera to an oak tree.  I flipped it on and hiked out.

Over the course of the next week, I resisted the temptation to to the farm after work, just to pull the film.  I drove down on the weekend with a fresh roll of film.  I found the camera in the same spot I had left it, and the LCD picture counter told me I had a full roll of film.

When I opened the camera, I was surprised to see that the film had not been advancing, and it hadn't re-wound either.  I could kiss that roll of film goodbye!  So a week's worth of scouting, and a what should have been a roll full of pictures were gone.

So I tried again.  With a fresh pile of corn on the ground and a loaded camera, I headed home.  The following weekend I drove to the farm again, and was met with success.  After doing a little old-fashioned scouting, I headed to the 1 hour photo.  I can remember picking up the pictures, and looking at them in my truck in the parking lot.  Strike Two... Disappointment again.  I got a whole roll of two different groups of does.  It was at this point, that I learned the importance of setting a delay between pictures, especially for a camera pointed at a corn pile.

After that, I had much success.  I cycled that camera around the farm throughout the season, and got a lot of great pictures, and good scouting done.  I took a nice 8 pointer that year, and was convinced that my new game camera had helped to put me on that deer.  I've been hooked every since.

I can't say I always continued to be successful with that MC2-GV though.  I did have a couple of additional film mishaps that year.  A couple of seasons later, I graduated to my first digital game camera.  It was a Moultrie, and it had an appetite for batteries.  I started off the season setting it and my MC2-GV in different locations on the farm.  That was the last season I ran that Stealth Cam.  I think I pulled it down the first time I went to pull the film.

The economics won out.  I couldn't see the purpose in purchasing film, paying for development, and still ending up with a handful of bad pictures on each roll of film. Bad pictures that I was having to pay to develop.  I own quite a few digital game cameras now, and I can't ever imagine going back to film.  So I put the MC2-GV back in the box of 'things that I'll never use again, but just can't part with.'  Although I can't get rid of it, I sure don't miss it.